aztekpm

On 4/9/2024 at 7:13 PM, Saint Greg said:

Isn’t that a Miami Vice + something blue?

Didn't see this answered, so if it was, ignore me  🙂

Yep, NCL adds a shot of blue curacao to the top of the Miami Vice.

I have beautiful veins, literally every tech smiles when they look. I had one blow a vein last week, didn't hurt, but she went straight in. My poor arm looks like it was in a prize fight! Black, blue, purple and a nice yellow and green ring from the inside of my arm to the elbow and down my arm almost 2 inches.

@HelloItsMeB @TxTeach79 Happy Birthday to you both!

48 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

I’m not the only one who noticed.

 

 

It was so bad on last year's Journeys cruise on the Legend that the Captain made an announcement and John Heald posted on FB to please not use the seats for cards, games & dominos during dining hours. I often had to sit with others, or take a larger table and if someone looked like they were looking for a seat make an offer if they wanted to sit with me (was my first solo cruise). I actually left one day during lunch as there wasn't one seat open. Chopsticks is my go to for lunch and my favorite on the Spirit Class.

I'm with you Greg, I rarely if ever see anyone at Bonsai. I think they should do a combo with JiJi's kitchen to add variety or just put in a different venue!

11 minutes ago, MeganGC1983 said:

USHER

Yeah, not feeling it too much. Getting better... but certainly not my favorite.

8 hours ago, maluhia87 said:

They knew which game they could get away with charging. Swifties paid to catch a glimpse of her at the game. 

Quite lucky here, in CA we get all the US channels, but, also our local channels, who have a buy in on the games, so was able to watch it without paying.

53 minutes ago, Mommapadraig said:

Been there. I told her to move

Wow, definitely rude. Personal space is a thing!

4 hours ago, blarko said:

Omg I used to drink shots of this all the time. The thought of it now makes me have that feeling of 🤮

Sambuca and Lemon Gin ...

Can't wait for this show to get on the road ... have fun!

Wow, this escalated quickly, page 6 already!

Not a prolific poster on our hangout or the 'other' site, but, would have loved to gone along on this one, except I already have 5 weeks booked over May & Sep!

Looking forward to all the shenanigans (one of my favorite words by the way) and the reviews should help the FOMO. Have fun everyone!

7 minutes ago, TxTeach79 said:

Boarded. Over 100 empty seats. They had to spread us out to even the weight out. Looks like a potentially bumpy ride. 
 

Hopefully no hot drinks are served... hold on tight and safe flight home!

46 minutes ago, TxTeach79 said:

Insomnia really cutting deep tonight, yall. Not for B… she’s mumbling made up words and sawing logs like she’s at the lumberjack show it Ketchikan. Me, I’m on the struggle bus. 

Ditto. Guess I got too much sleep over the Christmas break. It's a definite no go tonight! LOL I should be in good shape about noon!

Happy New Year everyone!

30 minutes ago, TxTeach79 said:

My goodness this is not a rum jumper at all. This is rocket fuel from the devil 

I had a funship from the casino in November that was like that ... very heavy pour!

1 hour ago, AmyJA said:

It's everywhere is big cities. Porland (both coasts), Miami, NY, New Orleans, Seattle. 

LOL small little towns too ... 

On 12/3/2023 at 7:22 PM, TxTeach79 said:

Well, we did it. B got a wild hair and came off the Norway Sky Princess idea when she fell in love with this itinerary, so we booked the Norwegian Pearl for next summer - a week after I get back from my Venezia solo. Time to lose some weight and save up… add it to the list!

 

 

My sister & her hubby did this cruise 2 years ago it was one of their favorites, I'm sure you'll both enjoy it.

5 hours ago, TxTeach79 said:

Random question - does anyone know of a hotel loyalty program that allows you to earn points on hotel spend - bar, dining, etc.? HHonors used to in the glory days, but these days I’m not sure. B and I are about to make a big transition in our primary program and I’m just thinking out loud….

3 hours ago, ZoeyVictoria said:

I have had a Marriott account since 2006 or so.  You earn more points if you also get a Marriott credit card, and there are enough bonus points with the card for at least two nights. One card is free, but comes with less points. The other one is $95 a year and the only annual credit card fee I am willing to pay. I get an annual certificate for a free night in a hotel up to 35,000 points, and consider it a $95 hotel night. The Marriott account has promos such as an extra 1,500 points for each stay, and parking (not always a fee), dining, incidentals, etc. also earn points. The card is through Chase Bank. There are quite a few new brands that fall under Marriott lately. . 

Concur with the Marriott loyalty program and card. It's AMEX in Canada (used to be Chase here too). In addition to the yearly night certificate I cant get multiple nights free a year in most hotels & locations in both CA & US. Saves some nice coin when travelling!

On 11/22/2023 at 7:03 PM, Jamman54 said:

Our final thoughts and ramblings.

 

I had promised myself that I would get this review completed before Thanksgiving, and I just made it under the wire. Well, actually I promised Patti, because my two laptops, printer / scanner, all of the cruise paperwork, etc, have lived on the dining room table since we returned home, and it is from here that I have posted the review. I need to get all this crap out of here if we’re going to have a Thanksgiving dinner!

 

First, we want to thank all of our Cruise Critic family for following, reading, and posting on this very long review, and hanging in there with us. It is greatly appreciated and the reason Patti and I will continue to do them as long as we are able.

 

We met quite a few Cruise Critic members during our time on the Venezia. We want to give a BIG shout out to Rich & Kathy, Charlie & Janice, Rhonda & Keith, Gail & DH, and Sylvia. It was a pleasure to meet all of you, and hopefully we’ll get to sail with you again in the future. I know that there were additional Cruise Critic members aboard that we didn’t get to meet, so hopefully we can connect sometime in the future.

 

I talked about the ship itself right at the beginning of the review, but I want to bring up a few points that didn’t concern us, but might bother some people. First, about the mid ship pool. Being enclosed as it is, there is a lack of space for sun loungers, and there are no hot tubs there. Patti and I almost never use the pool or hot tubs on the ships, unless we are in the Havana Area on certain ships, so this doesn’t bother us. But if you are a sun worshiper, and enjoy the pools and hot tubs, your choices are limited. There is also the aft Burano Pool area, but with a ship that carries 4K passengers, it may be tough finding a spot.

 

The second thing I want to talk about is the Terrazza Carnevale, which is the Havana Area equivalent on this ship. We had an opportunity to walk back here twice, and it is a beautiful area, but without a pool we would not book a cabin there. That’s just us. Some of our Cruise Critic friends had cabins back there and loved it, so to each their own. Overall, we loved the décor on the Venezia.

 

Let’s talk a little bit about the food experience. We are not foodies by any means. We know that the food served in the MDR’s is banquet quality at best. Before Covid, Patti and I would almost always eat our dinners in the MDR. After cruising resumed, we found that the experience in the MDR had changed. Luke warm food and slow service, which is not always the servers fault, became the norm. We quickly realized that most of what is served in the dining room was available up at the buffet. Why spend two hours eating dinner in the MDR, when you have the same food, hotter, as much as you want, in much less time?

 

We went to the Canal Grande Dining room during the first leg of our B2B, and it was the same old thing. We were there for almost two hours, and we never even got our desserts. We did not return for the rest of our time on the Venezia.

 

We ate twice at IL Viaggio and we loved it. We thought that it was better than the Cucina del Capitano equivalent on the other ships. We had one dinner at the Fahrenheit 555 Steakhouse which was great, and we ate once at the Bonsai Teppanyaki which was awesome. We ate at Bonsai Sushi five times during our three weeks on the Venezia. We just love that place! We did have the Seafood Shack one time, but the rest of our meals were from the Lido Marketplace, the Deli, or Pizzeria del Capitano. We did not go hungry!

 

The entertainment on board was very good. We enjoyed the Quora String Trio, Music & Magic, Regie, and the Venezia Rockband. We enjoyed all of the stage shows that we went to see in the Teatro Rosso. Being on a Journeys cruise you get to see a lot of the fly in Variety Acts, and all of them were good. Patti doesn’t go to the Comedy Club, but I got to see eight different comedians during my time on board. In my opinion, some were good and some were not, and I gave my ratings during the review. Please remember though, like food, comedy is very subjective. What I find funny, you may not, and vice versa. Each comedian has to have some talent, or they wouldn’t be there. A couple of events that you shouldn’t miss because they are not on any other Carnival ships, is the Captain’s Venetian Toast, and the Festa Italiana.

 

All of the crew on board that we encountered were excellent, except one, so we want to give some shout outs. The first is Captain Enzo. What a nice guy, and he is very approachable. The fact that he approached me and chatted for five minutes left a huge impression on me! The next was Cruise Director Joey Boyes. We had never seen him before this cruise, but boy was he good. He was very approachable and friendly, and we got to know him pretty well by the end of our cruises. Blessing, our first room steward was awesome. Our friend Zora at the Amari Bar was fantastic as usual. We have been on quite a few ships together. Valentina at the Lobby Bar, and Andrea at the Frizzante Bar were awesome as well. As for Edy, he did make our bed and keep our room clean. Nothing less, nothing more.

 

Overall, the weather during our cruises was very good. Yes, the weather on the New England / Canada leg was a little cool, but that was to be expected. The weather for the Journeys cruise was perfect, even a little hot on some days. Other than the hour thunderstorm we had in Aruba, the rest of the time it was sunny. The worst weather was in New York. Embarkation, turnaround, and debarkation days were all cloudy and rainy.

 

We enjoyed all of our ports of call, especially Barbados and St Lucia which we hadn’t been to before. We had some all-inclusive days, a cabana day, some sight-seeing days, and a couple of beach days. What we thought was pretty cool was that at each of our seven ports of call on the Journeys cruise, the Venezia was the only ship in port that day. Even in St. Maarten and St. Thomas which usually see multiple ships every day, the Venezia was the only one!

 

My mind has gone blank, so if you have any questions at all we’ll be more than happy to answer them for you. If I think of anything else, I’ll be sure to post it.

 

And now for our future cruise plans. On January 14th 2024, we will be on the Celebration from Miami again for a 7 day cruise to the Eastern Caribbean. This will be even more special as its “The Tribe” cruise, (IYKYK), so we’ll be meeting up with a whole bunch of the Cruise Critic Family. We can’t wait!

 

On April 14th 2024, we will head back to Port Canaveral for B2B cruises on the Vista to the Eastern and Southern Caribbean. We have the same Havana inside cabin booked for both legs. Two weeks of the “Havana Experience”. Sweet!

 

For our fall cruise, we were originally going to be boarding the Pride in Baltimore for a 14 day Journeys cruise to Greenland and Canada. Because of the problems that the Legend had tendering there, and even getting to, we decided to cancel. We love the Pride, but we just didn’t want to take the chance. Instead, on August 31^st 2024 we will once again be boarding the Venezia for B2B cruises from New York City. The first will be a seven day cruise to Bermuda, followed by a seven day cruise to Canada. To top it off we have learned that our favorite Cruise Director, Lee Mason, will be joining the ship the day that we get on!

 

Our cruises for 2025 are shaping up like this. On March 31^st 2025 we will be heading to New Orleans to board the Valor for B2B cruises to the Western Caribbean. After getting off the Valor we will be heading over to Galveston and on April 12^th 2025 we will be boarding the Jubilee, also going to the Western Caribbean. These are two ships that we haven’t sailed on, and two homeports that we’ve never been to. We are planning this as a mega road trip. There are so many details to hammer out, but we have a lot of resources here at Cruise Critic that will help us out with this.

 

Finally, on September 26^th 2025, we will be heading out to Seattle to board the Carnival Spirit for a fifteen day cruise to Hawaii. We’ve never been to Seattle, so we’ll fly out a few days early to check it out.  Will any of you be sailing on any of these cruises with us? If not, we’ll be bringing these cruises to you!

 

Before I end this, I have to thank my beautiful wife Patti. I couldn’t do these adventures, or these reviews, without her. She is my best friend, my rock, and a heck of a photographer!

 

Speaking of photography, the photos you see on these reviews are only a small portion of all the photos Patti takes during our cruises. If you would like to see the whole package, there is a link in my signature for our Cruise and Vacation albums. Feel free to check them out if you are so inclined.

 

Now I get to clean off the dining room table, so until next time, which will only be a couple of months, may you have blue skies and calm seas!!!

Fabulous review once again. 

I am booked on the Pride Greenland and was looking forward to meeting you, but, understand your decision. I'll be taking my chances, so fingers crossed. Funnily enough I'm doing a B2B and sailing to Bermuda before the Greenland cruise. Got to have some warm to go with the expected cool on vacation!

On 11/17/2023 at 1:53 PM, IntrepidFromDC said:

30-mph winds and 10-ft swells with some whitecaps... didn't sleep very well with all the creaking and hangers clacking.

There was definitely motion on the ocean, crazy winds! They actually vibrated the top lock on my balcony door loose and boy was it whistling when I got back to my room. Luckily the bottom lock held. I checked it morning and night after that.

I slept very well, LOL well until I almost rolled out of bed. I tend to sleep near the edge, moved a little more to the middle and all was good!

16 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

He still has to do Inca. He’s going on a cruise out of Chile for that next year.

 

Ahhh has to complete the trifecta first, LOL, gotcha!

Sure would be nice if Carnival offered that room bar service based on Cheers or Drinks on Us Anywhere, I'd love that!

2 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

I’m really shocked this guy with me picked this tour as his first Mayan tour. Not that there’s anything wrong with it but Alton Ha is a lot closer. And out where we’re going, Xuntunich is the bigger site.

He is going because he had a dream that aliens came down and told him he needs to visit a Mayan, Aztec, and Inca site. Then they will come back and take him up in their spaceship.

no baloney sandwiches. That’s what he said.

 

Well? Did he make it back to the ship, or LOL did the aliens pick him up!?

2 hours ago, #55worktoplay said:

I too googled  it.  So it all looks good, what was your choice?

Right?! Fine show the box, but we wanna see what was IN the box. 🙃

I'm on this cruise too and have to agree about the staff. Top notch! Also, chopsticks is my favorite go to on Legend & Pride. 

Did you hear that someone (not me, unfortunately, but I was in the vicinity at the time) won $10K on the Autumn Moon slot!?

1 hour ago, dmet0225 said:

I might be in the minority who absolutely hates stopping at a Buc-ee’s.  Way too many people and traffic.  The traffic on I-10 just east of Mobile, AL heading towards Destin as horrendous when we last drove there in 2021.  I thought there might have been a fatality accident ahead of me, only it was a line to exit the highway for a Buc-ee’s.  It might be blasphemous to say that the beaver nuggets are also over rated.

2x and done.

First time on my own, solo road trip and even that took almost 45 mins by the time I gassed up, used the facilities, got some snacks and looked around.

2nd time was because I made the mistake of telling my friends and on a girls road trip we HAD to stop. Almost 2 hours later... I sat in the car for the last hour while they browsed and purchased.

1 hour ago, dmet0225 said:

I should add the following to @MeganGC1983 post - the smell WILL get worse as they get older.  Febreze won’t cut it.  

 

By the way, there’s no way my car smelled that bad when I played hockey all those years growing up.   I’m sure of it.

Hockey equipment is gross. LOL one big memory is of my cousin & friend playing in a tournament in Michigan and when we came back to CA the border guard pulled us over. She was digging thru the equipment and it was RIPE! There was nothing in there but stinky equipment and she went thru it all!

13 hours ago, MeganGC1983 said:

 .umm yeah

I drink 13 or 15, not only is it going to be blurrier than that, it's more than likely gonna be completely dark, cause my az be passed out.

LOL kinda like this ...